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Solar wings on space station unfurled

WASHINGTON: The huge solar wings on the International Space Station were successfully unfurled, paving the way for the orbiting laboratory to power up to its full capacity for the first time. NASA said "no difficulties were encountered" in the operation that came after astronauts Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold Thursday bolted a girder to the space station to hold panels forming the fourth and last solar antenna. The payload, carried aboard the space shuttle Discovery, is one of the last major tasks of the more than decade-long effort to construct the 100-billion-dollar outpost in space. Once the solar array is activated the panels will have the capacity to generate some 120 kilowatts of usable electricity, enough to power about 42 large homes.The 14-ton piece was carried into space by Discovery, which blasted off Sunday from Florida, and the orbiter's robotic arm was used to lift it out of the shuttle's bay.The solar panels, which measure 35 meters (yards) by 11.58 meters (yards) when deployed, contain 32,800 cells that convert the light of the sun into electricity.

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